The Meaning Of Death In The Giver

Jonas's father obliviously follows the rules of the community, not stopping to think for even a second that maybe things could be different, that life could be better. He is among all the other oblivious citizens in the community doing his job without realizing what he is truly doing. Jonas's father is a nurturer, meaning he takes care of the newly born children. He is required to 'release' a certain number of newborns per year. The community is told that this means they send the child off into a new community, but Jonas learns the truth, which is, they are put to death. As Jonas was watching a video of his father doing the 'release ceremony' he yelled "he killed it! My father killed it!" (56) Jonas could not believe that the community had been lying to everyone forever, or that his own father would do such a thing and lie about it. Later on in the novel, we learn that love is not existent in this society. After Jonas and the giver had talked about love and what it is, Jonas decided to ask his own parents how they felt about him. Jonas stated "'do you love me?' There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle 'Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language please!’" (71) This shows that love is not something that exists within the community, seeing as love would require a connection between two individuals, created

Promptly afterwards, Jonas seems “stunned at what he was realizing. He continued to stare at the screen numbly” (Lowry 188). Lowry compares Jonas’s innocence when he is first unable to comprehend the actions of his father, to his growing maturity, after he

He killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing"(lowery188). He is sickened to find out the truth about the society as he understands the concept of death threw the memories of war. He fully realizes now how everything in the society is wrong and how it is in fact, a dystopia. citizens of the community, like Jonas's father, are conditioned to work like a mindless robot where appalling and senseless acts like killing a newborn baby for population control is not morally and emotionally concerning to them and they feel no guilt delivering lethal injections to the innocent as part of their jobs.

Jonas believes that all emotions and memories that he has witnessed are to be returned to the communities, and that only an act of disobedience can make that happen. Jonas, having obeyed the rules since birth, has decided, with help from The Giver, Fiona and Asher, to go against the Elders in freeing everyone’s memories. As Erich Fromm talks about in his article “ Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, Jonas has seen the truth in how the Elders have disguised death, regarding how newborns who do not meet the requirements are killed and those who kill them are unaware of what they are doing, have impacted Jonas’s “humanistic conscience” in seeing what is human or inhuman by showing the destruction of life (Fromm

Moreover, one of the times he gets angry was when he found out that his father had been killing infants in the releases he was performing. This is shown in chapter 19 where it states, He killed it! My father killed it, too! Lowry - 150 ml. This quote supports my claim because at this moment Jonas was obviously truly angry at his father for killing Gabriel when releasing him.

With Jonas’s job as being The Giver, truth is a very important aspect. Being The Giver, he learns about the real, and whole truth. The Giver is the one who keeps all of the memories of truth. Without it there would be no reason to have a Giver. Another way that the truth works in the role Jonas was given would be that if Jonas leaves the community, all of the memories that he had received would be then distributed to the people of the community. When The Giver and Jonas come up with the idea that everyone not knowing the truth is wrong, they send Jonas away so that everyone receives the memories. There are many ways in which the truth works in the role that Jonas receives, such as when the Chief Elders ask The Giver for advice when they are in times of trouble. Here is a great example of what I mean, “And when I am called to The Committee of Elders, I appear before them, to give them counsel and advice”(Lowry 130) The truth is used in many other ways in Jonas’s job as well, and these are only a

Jonas has to learn more about death and pain than he already has. Death was something that wasn’t talked about in the community. The community “releases” members when they are old or if there is a set of twins or something wrong with a baby. Release is something celebrated within the community. Jonas had no idea that what release really means is to murder someone. He watches the release of a baby boy who was part of a set of twins born into the community. His father is the one performing this release because his father is a nurturer. This knowledge left Jonas devastated and in shock that his father could do something so terrible. He leaves the Giver’s and tells him that he can no longer continue receiving the memories. He takes a few days and collects himself. Fiona, his childhood friend talks him into to going back. Love is another emotion new to Jonas. He falls in love with Fiona. Falling in love is a big step that usually happens in adulthood. Another thing Jonas does that proves his progression in maturity is he decides to leave the community. When you grow up, you leave your mom and dad’s house which is how I connected this part of Jonas’ life with that of a real life

Jonas is just another member of his community. He spends his life following the rules that his community has imposed him. In all his life, he has blindly followed the rules and has never questioned them. For that reason, it comes to a shock when he receives new instructions that go against everything he has been taught:

Jonas is the protagonist of the novel and a third-person narrator tells the entire story from Jonas perception of things. He is intelligent, curious, caring, and his thought process is very mature for being 11-13 years old. A good quote portraying both his matureness and his intellect is “If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things”(97). This is also one of the first signs that he is displeased with the community. Another quote showing his courage and curiosity is "It hurt a lot," Jonas said, "but I'm glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better. What it meant, that there would be

Then he went limp. He head fell to the side, his eyes half open. Then he was still… He killed it! My father killed it! Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing. He continued to stare at the screen numbly…” (Lowery 150).

In the story, Jonas is reacting to his father killing the child. He is angry and sad at his father. The book says, “He killed it! My father killed it!”(188). This is important because this shows how the community needs change because they kill innocent children. Jonas reacting showed that emotions help people care about others.

Have you ever considered what happens to a person when they change? In the book 'The Giver', Jonas is similar in a few ways at the end of the book from the start. But why does this matter? When a person goes through difficult experiences, they are still the same in a lot of ways.

Jonas began to feel like her wanted to go home. Jonas can't go back to his community, "But he knew he couldn't go back to the world of no feelings for that he had lived in so long" (Lowry 131). Jonas wants to leave the community and never come back to it again because no matter how much he tries to give them memories he can't change them. Jonas decides that it is ok for him to leave his community. “ If he stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hanged for feelings, for color, for love” (Lowry 174). Jonas made the right decision of leaving his community because he would have been starving for answer on why they never changed the community but he feels happier that he rejected his society and left. (SIP-B) Jonas doesn't want to be a part of his community anymore. Jonas doesn't want to go back to his dwelling to see his family, "I won't! I won't go home! You can't make me!' Jonas sobbed and shouted and pounded the bed with his fist" (Lowry 153). Jonas doesn't want to go back to his dwelling to see his family again because his father lied to him about the ceremony of release for babies. Jonas wanted his childhood back, he didn't want to be the receiver anymore, "Jonas did not want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games" (Lowry 121). That Jonas doesn't want to be the receiver of memory anymore he wants to get his childhood back so he doesn’t have to know about the memories of past communities. Jonas is rejecting his society because he finds out the true meaning of his community and why they took out what they

One reason why Jonas hates this community is because of the rules. If you make one small mistake, you can get in serious trouble, also known as being released (killed). “ When an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice….Needless to say, he will be released.” (pg. 13) This suggests that the rules in the society can have a major impact on someone if they make just a slight error. The fact that the person did not follow the directions well enough and got killed is appalling. These unpleasant and ridiculous rules support a dystopian novel because they show how unpleasant living in this community can be.

Jonas discovers what is really beyond his community, beyond all the rules and policies they have to follow; he decides to leave and give all of his memories to the rest of the community so they would know about what they have not seen or experienced before. Jonas discovers that the community has decided too many things for everyone. He realizes Sameness is not right, that it cannot last any longer. He thinks of all the what-ifs. What if the Elders choose a wrong spouse? What if the Elders choose the wrong job for someone?